RIU celebrates its first anniversary of working with the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital

International

At the end of 2023 RIU Hotels & Resorts started working on its first social project in the United States, in collaboration with the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, and a leading children’s health centre in the region.

This hospital specialises in caring for children in the Hudson Valley who severe illnesses and injuries and uses play therapy as part of the treatment. RIU lends its support to their Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy department. This action forms part of RIU’s Proudly Committed sustainability strategy, whose main actions focus on child protection, education and health.

Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is a Level I Trauma Centre and is the only paediatric intensive care and burn units in its region. These facilities offer programmes specialising in the recovery of children in critical medical situations, such as after serious accidents or burns.

For children, these experiences can be especially traumatic, and is why the hospital has a Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy department. This team uses art and other therapeutic tools to help child patients and their families cope with their hospital stay and treatment. It has been scientifically proven that play therapy and art have a positive impact on patient recovery. Child Life and Creative Arts specialists guide the children and their families through the entire process, offering emotional and psychological support.

RIU provides funding for a certified Child Life specialist to concentrate directly on the paediatric patients at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. RIU’s contribution has also helped to develop educational and support materials adapted to the native language of patients and their families, allowing them to better understand and participate in the recovery process. These professionals are highly trained to help people faced with serious illnesses, improving their overall patient welfare.

Each year, over 3,000 children are seen at this hospital, where the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy department strives to make their hospital stay easier. Activities such as painting sessions, singing classes and therapeutic games offer patients a space to switch off from the hospital environment, minimising the social and emotional impact of hospitalisation. These activities also help to provide families with respite care as part of the hospital’s overarching support.

This collaboration is RIU’s first social project in the United States, where RIU already has five establishments. In New York, there is the Riu Plaza New York Times Square and the Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square, offering 1,303 rooms between them. RIU is soon to open a third hotel in New York, the Riu Plaza Broadway, which will be the chain’s biggest there with 673 rooms, right at the heart of the city.

For further information please visit: www.riu.com